Sandusky abuse victim sues ex-coach, Penn State

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A young man who testified last year at Jerry Sandusky's child sexual abuse trial sued the former assistant coach and Penn State on Thursday over what he said was nearly four years of sexual assault while in his early teens.

The lawsuit by the man known as Victim 9 in criminal court records was filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court after talks with the university failed to reach a settlement.

The lawsuit claims the boy, now 20 years old, wouldn't have been victimized if university officials had properly handled other complaints about Sandusky.

“Penn State provided Sandusky the tools with which to ply the craft of a pedophile long after Sandusky's formal ties with the university were supposed to have been severed,” the lawsuit said.

Victim 9's lawyers wrote that “it was the inviolable culture of financial and sporting success of Penn State football that made possible the horrific sexual abuse that forms the basis of this lawsuit.”

A university spokesman declined comment, and a message left for a lawyer who has represented Sandusky in other civil litigation wasn't immediately returned.

The young man's lawyers called him John Doe D and asked that his identity not be disclosed.

“It's now clear that Penn State enabled Sandusky to sexually abuse more than 20 other children before Sandusky preyed on this boy,” wrote the plaintiff's lawyer, Stephen Raynes. “Each of those tragic assaults provided Penn State with the opportunity to stop Sandusky, opportunities which Penn State squandered. We will learn through this lawsuit why that happened and what additional lessons Penn State should learn.